Casinos and most
forms of public gambling are illegal in Anguilla. So, I felt a slap in the face when I heard on
yesterday’s Radio Anguilla news that government is working on drafting a new Casino
Policy and a new Gaming Act for Anguilla.
According to the news, casinos hold great potential for revenue
generation. They will be introduced, the
release said, early next year, 2023. I
only heard about it yesterday, but the proposal must have been in the works for
some time. I know we Anguillians are said
to be hypocrites, but I did not think that we would allow things to go so far
without making a great noise.
Anguillians
are already addicted to small-time gambling.
We have gambled our little fortunes away for hundreds of years. On boat racing days, men traditionally gather
on the beaches at Sandy Ground and Maids Bay shouting and gesticulating as they
encourage their favourite boat to outwit the competition. Large sums of money change hands. Fights and brawls over these unregulated bets
are a common sight. Perhaps because it
happens so infrequently, no one comments on it or complains.
Since
time immemorial, cock pits have lined the roads of our villages. I remember forty years ago when every village
had at least one, even if it was only the shell of a barely started house. The men gathered around late in the evening
cheering on their champion cocks. These
leapt and cut at each other with their sharpened spurs. Even larger sums of money changed hands. Gaming with cocks is still a popular if
vulgar Anguillian social activity. In
certain supermarkets, bags of pig food, rich in muscle-building protein, are
regularly imported for sale to fighting-cock owners. Yet, no one has ever been prosecuted for the
offence of gaming in public.
Pitbull
terriers are prohibited by law in Anguilla.
It is a serious offence to own one, far less to put it in the ring. This has been so since the tragedy of mauled
babies down in The Forest a few years ago.
Yet, dog-fighting continues to this day to be a favourite sport in
certain sectors. Thousands of dollars change
hands as their dogs maul each other to death.
The ante for putting your dog in the ring is said to start at
US$10,000.00. The fate of a losing dog
is a sad one. It is not given a
burial. The body of a deceased loser is
thrown on the side of the road to show contempt for it. Protein-rich dogfood is imported and sold
solely for the purpose of building up the muscles of these fighting dogs. I need hardly add that no one in Anguilla has
ever been prosecuted for keeping fighting dogs or for putting them in the ring. None of the statutory prohibitions of cruelty
to animals nor illegal gambling is an enforced offence in Anguilla.
And
now, as has happened elsewhere, we will experience hard-working gambling
addicts spending their week’s wages in casinos.
Efforts will, of course, initially be made to exclude Anguillians from
casinos. There will be solemn promises
to this effect. We remember when foreign-owned
casinos were first allowed in St Maarten, and they were prohibited from letting
in local St Maarteners. That did not
last long, maybe a decade. It won’t last
long here either.
Initially,
casinos will be limited to hotels.
Inevitably, pressure will be brought to permit slot machines and other
gambling furniture in restaurants and shopping malls. The easy availability of opportunities to
gamble will attract increasing members of the public, including children.
While
occasional gambling may not be harmful, it is now well-known that the
pleasure-causing endorphins and serotonins released in the brain by the thrill
of the chance can cause gambling to become a habit and then an addiction. Those who love gambling, inevitably become
addicted to it. People who can ill
afford it will continue to play even after losing high stakes, in the hope of
winning back what they have lost. The
resulting debt-trap will cause relationships to break down, families to be
impoverished, and the gamblers resorting to crime to recover the amounts lost.
Once
casinos are introduced into Anguilla, the crime rate will likely begin to rise,
as it seems it has everywhere else where public gambling is made legal. Robberies can be expected to go up, auto
theft will probably increase, burglaries will probably soar, and even murders
may go up. Gambling is a target of crime
because of the large amounts of money associated with it.
Anguilla
has set its target on attracting high quality tourists. Our hotels are mainly high-end, and we are
advertised as up-market. Gambling
tourism is at the opposite end of Anguilla’s long touted objective. Gambling tourism brings a low quality of
visitors to what was formerly an up-market tourism community.
Until
the island’s gaming industry is taken over by one of the big mafia families, it
will be essentially unregulated and subject to violent administrative incidents. We all remember that before St Maarten was reportedly
taken over and managed by the Sicilian mafia, management changes were usually made
by the previous owners departing with their arms in slings on the same
aeroplane that brought in the new management.
The
large profits that accrue to casino owners inevitably impact the political life
of the island. Politicians in Anguilla may
be hard-pressed to resist the huge gifts that will be offered in exchange for a
licence, support for a monopoly, or preferential treatment of one kind or
another. Our public life already garners
suspicion, and it is frightening to contemplate what it will be like after
casino gambling is introduced.
Only
three decades ago, the US entertainment entrepreneur Bob Johnson offered to
dredge the Road Pond and turn it into a marina.
His one condition was that the law be changed to permit him to construct
a casino in the marina. Public opinion
on the island was unanimously against the casino proposal, and Mr Johnson went
away.
When
the Caribbean Lottery was introduced into the island several years ago, we
waited to object too late. Important
local forces were behind it. Government
ignored the warnings and concerns of the public and made it legal anyway. Now, illegal Santo Domingo Lotto outlets
proliferate all over the island. The
police make ineffective and sporadic efforts to close them down. But there is so much money in them that they
soon burst back out into the open, even if illegal.
If
we are so anxious to follow St Maarten’s example and raise revenue from every
type of immoral activity, perhaps it will not be long before we legalise
brothels to provide the services of foreign women in Anguilla. I understand we can raise substantial taxes
from this business. Never mind that this
means of living off the immoral earnings of desperate foreign women, is not
only illegal but a quite disgusting form of human trafficking. Think of all the needed public revenue it
could bring in. Shut your eyes and keep
quiet!
Can
somebody explain what has changed? Is it
that we are confident that we are so big and strong that we can regulate,
manage, and control the evils of the casino industry?
Or
is it that we have become so careless and complacent, that we no longer mind
what our political leaders are doing that corrupt our life and society?
What
are our church leaders doing to oppose this obscene and immoral proposal to
license casinos?
Are
our church groups discussing and debating the impact this proposal will have on
community life if it goes into effect?
What
are our women’s groups doing to confront this social evil which will result in
so many of our poorer working families finding themselves at the end of the
week with no wages or income to put food on the table?
What
are our men’s groups doing to protect their brothers and sons from this habit-forming
temptation?
What
are our social workers and counsellors doing to bring awareness to our
community about the threat this proposal to legalise casinos poses to our
already fragile mental health?
Why
is the Chamber of Commerce silent in the face of this invidious threat to our
economy and society?
Is
it still true that in Anguilla those who care don’t count, and those who count
don’t care?
